In recent years, many e-commerce businesses have suffered from managing the problem of success. The growth of e-commerce has caused web site proprietors to have frequent occasion to reevaluate their hardware and software needs for their web sites. Frequently, a web site proprietor faces the realization that an initial amount of software and hardware allocated to a web site is insufficient to accommodate a number of concurrent users accessing the web site (i.e., the “load” on the web site). Additionally, response times for accessing the web site, performing certain activities within the web site, and retrieving desired information from the web site may become so slow that a user of the web site exits the web site due to the slow response time. On extreme overload conditions, some customers will receive “server not available” errors and will not be able to get access. It is additionally possible that customers could be dropped in the middle of a transaction. Ultimately, the entire web site could fail under the load. Examples of sites experiencing overload problems include Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, which experienced overload during the release of the new Stephen King novel. Additionally, the Victoria's Secret web site failed completely during its first fashion show.
Web site proprietors, such as Internet “start-up companies,” are initially uncertain as to the loads their web sites will be required to handle. Such web sites may initially be developed on a small scale, and the web site proprietors may have an intention of expanding the web sites in the future. However, if a web site is selling products or services which are in great demand or the web site offers incentives to users who access the web site in order to increase the number of users of the web site, or the web site is actively engaged in advertising and publicizing the products or services sold via the web site, the web site often ends up becoming quickly overburdened by a large number of concurrent users. The proprietor of the web site may not be able to respond quickly enough by adding hardware and software to the web site to address the large number of concurrent users. Consequently, the web site may experience technical difficulties such as “crashes” or slow response times because it was not designed to handle the traffic level loads. Such technical difficulties frequently cause consumer dissatisfaction. The web site proprietor may lose potential customers while trying to redesign the web site to meet the large volume of concurrent users.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a technique for managing web site traffic which overcomes the above-described inadequacies and shortcomings. In traditional businesses, companies are able to limit the number of customers they service through limiting physical access to stores or placing customers on hold on phone lines. A system and/or method is needed to avoid web site technical difficulties, such as web site crashes and slow response times, among other difficulties, by limiting the number of concurrent users that can access the web site and notifying customers that web site access is not currently available.